The Key to Growing your Business

Wouldn’t it be great if there were a magical way to grow your business? Plant a seed and watch it grow, climb the beanstalk and collect your gold? Unfortunately this is not the case, growing a business takes hard work, dedication, experience, and patience. The reality is there are many “giants” out there looking to keep you from attaining your goals. The biggest “giant” holding you back however is, you.

There is a saying I have used for many years. At this point I am unsure if I heard it from someone else or if it’s something I came up with, but either way it is no matter. The saying is “ The only way to grow, is to grow.” This simple saying has so much meaning and to me is the true key to not only growing in business, but in any aspect of your life.

The only way to grow your business is to first grow your knowledge. This growth in education, technical expertise, management skills, marketing, sales, and business acumen is a necessary step to creating a foundation to grow your business on.

This can easily be started by attending online trainings, webinars and conferences, as well as reading self-help books, joining peer networks or groups, and reaching out to other successful entrepreneurs for advice and mentoring.

Another way to take the saying is literally. “The only way to grow, is to grow,” in this I mean you must know when to add employees, expand your space, or add additional products and services. These can be difficult, as a good company will run lean, getting maximum efficiency from employees and workspace and minimizing costs. However running too lean can cause internal strife, resentment, and ultimately turnover.

As you can see this all goes back to growth in education. The more you can understand about the business side of things, the better decisions you will make with regards to growth. Business management is where many IT companies fail in their growth plan. Many IT business owners fail to educate themselves on the business side of the company and follow the passion that brought them to the business in the first place, “the technology.”

So the key to growing your business is growing your knowledge. As a CEO or owner, it is imperative that the technology takes a backseat to the business. This is the hardest part for IT company business owners, but a sit down with most successful IT Company CEO’s is likely to result in similar advice.